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Hooray for GPs!

“Why would you want to be a GP? All you do all day is deal with coughs and colds, and give people antibiotics.”

So went a recent conversation with a medical-student friend. I know that an idea exists of GP work not being as ‘glamorous’ or ‘exciting’ as hospital specialisms. I want to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to all of those wonderful medics out there who do chose the GP route.

My GP has been magnificent during the last few months (and not just because I know she is reading this blog!). After the initial hospital appointment where they first used the C word, she called me out of the blue just to let me know that she was available if and when I needed her for anything – however big or small. This unprompted support was a shining light in a dark moment and I have thought back to it many times since.

During the whirlwind of diagnosis and subsequent treatment, I was largely dealing with hospital staff from either St George’s, the Royal Marsden or Kingston Hospital. However, there have been several incidences both between and since treatment where I have needed to check something, or been concerned about something. And it was my GP that I turned to.

She has fitted me in for several last-minute appointments during what I’m sure was her lunchtime or after the end of her normal working day. She has shown real care and concern about how I am getting on. In a time of moving between various hospitals and specialists, she has remained the one constant person throughout. She reassures me that I am not ‘making a fuss‘. I am so very grateful to her, and to all the other GPs out there just like her who offer that first line of help and support which is so important to patients.

She has also dished out several courses of antibiotics to me in the past few weeks; that’s what GPs do, isn’t it?